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By the way …

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I am known by my pseudonym, Nasifriet, a concatenated word blend of the Malay or Indonesian word Nasi (rice) and the Flemish or Dutch word Friet (fries). I was born and raised in Sarawak a.k.a the Land of the Hornbills, which is one of the 13 states in Malaysia. I moved to Belgium in the autumn of 1995. My other half is a Belgian (Flemish) and I have 2 sons. I work fulltime by day and blog whenever I have the time, energy and inspiration. If you don’t see my posts published for ages, chances are I’m dog-tired after a hard day at work or I’m on holiday :-D. Unfortunately, most of the time, it’s the former . When I started this blog on 27th March 2010, I was clue-less about the genre of my blog. Let’s just say that the gist of my blog are the day-to-day stories I picked up at work, at home, on holiday, networking with friends and most of all, my reminiscence of my childhood days growing up in Kuching. Every single post on my blog, including my cooking adventure, has that special story to share and BY THE WAY… is my catch phrase I used in my post ;-)

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Congee (or kanji), rice porridge, gruel, bubur, moi, chook (or jook): It’s called by many names, but I fondly remembered calling it, simply, porridge or moi. However, “porridge”, to a non Asian person, is equivalent to oatmeal. In Flanders, they called this “havermoutpap”. Totally different, I’m afraid 🙂

Anyway, let’s stick to the version that I knew and know best 😉

Hassle free rice porridge

Cooking rice porridge is really easy. I cooked mine in an electric rice cooker, using the “porridge” function button. Just one measuring cup of uncooked rice and copious water and “click”; the porridge was ready in about 20 minutes. You will be surprise to see the rice porridge “swell” in volume. Add in more water (at this stage, use cooked water or drinking water from the bottle) until you have reached the consistency you desire. I prefer my rice porridge a little bit runny, not too thick.

Believe it or not, the amount of rice porridge you see here lasted me for 3 days! Only one measuring cup of rice; no wonder they used to call this meal a “poor man’s meal” or “peasant’s meal”. For me it was a meal fit for a queen! Yup, that’s right. I was feasting on rice porridge for THREE CONSECUTIVE DAYS! Holy Moly! 😀

Day 1: The ‘wholly’ Trinity

By the way, I have not had rice porridge in years, hence, the thought and subsequently, the action of having it, was a sheer delight. I was feeling nostalgic and immediately served three tasty side dishes to go with the bland rice porridge.

I was over the moon when I saw “homemade salted fish” sold in a mini Asian store I frequent during my lunch break one work week. The salted fish (kiam hu) was prepared by the “lady of the house’ herself, a Thai. I will talk about her in a coming post. Some of you who are reading this post, will know who I am referring to, so stay tuned 😉

I grabbed the plastic platter with the fried salted fish from the refrigerator and paid a rather hefty 5 Euro for it. If you’re craving for something, forget the numbers, for once. It was a small piece of half a fish but delectably prepared with sautéed trimmings of galangal, lemongrass, shallots, and dried shrimps and garnished with fresh whole bird’s eye chilies and lemon wedge. YUM!

I could do that myself, but my guys at home would be screaming their heads off with the fishy stench lingering forever in the house. LOL!

Salted egg (kiam n’ng) or century egg (pi tan) would go pretty well with my rice porridge, but these were not available – ready made – at the time, hence, I ended up making omelette. It was a quick, tasty and rustic looking omelette which I added chopped spring onions, fresh coriander, tomatoes, pickled shredded cabbage (chai por), salt and pepper to taste.

A good bowl of rice porridge is not complete without some salted mustard green (kiam chai). I prefer the ones I used to have when I was in Kuching. Anyway, to complete my ‘wholly’ Trinity, I got by with a can of pickled cabbage. The taste of the canned kiam chai was not what I was used to savour. It was just okay.

Et voilá! My Day 1 rice porridge feast made in heaven! It was simply divine!

Day 2: Deuce!

With still a lot of leftover porridge in my electric rice cooker, I cooled it down and scooped it into a clean glass dish and refrigerated it.

A part of the leftover became my Day 2 porridge feast.

Day 1 was a mild start. I wanted something different the second time around; something with flavours and textures.

I was really excited when I saw a familiar looking vegetable sold at a local Asian store somewhere in Leuven. Although it was not THAT fresh looking, it was still okay. I must have that, I thought, because I knew what I was going to do with it.

That’s correct! The four-angled bean or winged bean or goa bean or kacang botol. Whatever you called it, that’s one of my favourite beans!

Again my nostalgic palate got the better of me. What better way than to stir fry the four-angled beans in some shrimp paste! Yup, “kacang botol tumis belacan”! It was down memory lane for me…

By the way, I cheated a little bit by using the Mae Pranom brand of shrimp flavour crushed chilli, a tiny bit of the belacan powder, shallots, minced garlic, shredded kaffir lime leaves, minced coriander root, salt and pepper.

Next, I wanted something crunchy. The crispy baby clams and anchovies conjured up the best trick ever.

What a tied score between the stir-fried spicy four-angled beans and crispy clams and anchovies. Deuce!

It was scrumptious!

Day 3: All-in-one

From three to two to all-in-one; this was my sons’ favourite version 😉

The once bland rice porridge was face lifted to the highest degree. Note that this version requires a pretty runny texture to the porridge. I added more water and gently heated it up over low to medium heat.

1.5 cups per pax for porridge is a lot, my friend. I believe you meant 1.5 cups per pax for rice. BTW, the 1 measuring cup I made for porridge could have been eaten for 4 days, if not for my boys who joined me on the 3rd day. They did not fancy the first 2 days’s versions because they’re not used to the authentic way of eating rice porridge. They preferred the Day 3 version because the porridge was tastier with all the seasonings and meatballs 😀 Should try that on your guys 😉

LOL! That’s correct, my dear. There are 3 of you. If you cooked 1.5 cups x 3 = 4.5 cups for porridge… that will last you for at least a couple of days. So, yes, it’s different measurements when steaming rice vs porridge. Ha ha ha!

Wow, your porridge certainly makes me feel hungry even after my dinner!
I have seen kiam neng (salted egg) regularly being sold in a thai shop in Antwerpen Chinatown. The 4 angled beans, that is something I have never seen in my life. The closest vegetable that I have seen that looks like it, is the lady’s fingers!

Ha ha! It’s always nice to have a bowl of porridge during these cold winter months. Oh, yes, I saw these salted eggs (unfortunately not from ducks but chickens) sold in a mini Asian store in Zaventem.

Huh? 4-angled beans are quite popular in SEAsia. Used to have them when in Kuching. They are not the same as lady’s fingers (okra). They are best stir fried with belacan, or can be taken raw or lightly blanched in hot water and served with sambal belacan (= ulam ) Yummy!

Hi Sophia! Thanks for passing by…
So, it’s a princess! What’s her name? How old is she now?
Yeah, porridge with century eggs would be great, isn’t it?. Do you know where we can get these. I’ve seen lots of salted eggs, but hardly, century eggs…

Love all the versions! 😀 And I know what you mean about cooking salted fish. I have a bottle of raw salted fish (in oil) sitting in my pantry waiting for me to “stink” up the house. LOL! I love salted fish but has been reluctant to cook it because of exactly this reason. I can’t find fresh salted eggs in my local Asian stores for years now – they carry only cooked ones, which I find weird-tasting. So I haven’t eating salted eggs in years and I really miss it. I’m thinking of making my own (brining the eggs in salt water) one of these days – another item added to my long (really long) to-do list. 😀

Thanks, Chris. With the cold weather, a bowl of congee is always inviting. I think I will do this again this weekend. I have some “chai por” and will stir fry eggs with that. Re salted eggs, I know what you meant. Can’t find decent ones here as well, however, I know of a small Thai sundry shop which sells these. She makes these salted eggs herself using chicken eggs, but she’s not selling them cheap 😦 If you’re making your own salted eggs, let me know!!!

How’s the weather like at your place now? We did not have a White Christmas but it’s starting to snow now and it’s freezing cold (-10 deg C). We’re expecting 10cm of snow tomorrow….. not looking forward to that, I’m afraid..